I had esophageal varices that they found after going to the hospital vomiting blood. I had been going to a GI doc for a couple of years with stomach cramps and diarrhea and I was told he could not find anything wrong with me. Before the bleed, I had been suffering from fatigue and sometimes I found it hard to keep my eyes open, I mentioned this to my regular doc(actually NP) and I would get talked about my sugar levels and my weight, I had been hardly eating and yet my sugar was around 200-230 all the time. Well, I didn't have my regular doc and the doc on call did a surgical endoscopy and found varices in my esophagus. So she banded them and set up a follow up appt with my regular GI doc. I go to him and he could not tell me why I had them. He did say that the only way he would know was to do a liver biopsy, this was on 9/25. He set up another endoscopy for 12/11. I kept getting sick, and I even developed a intestinal bacterial infection from the hospital. Colds and everything. He was sending me for all kinds of xrays, ultrasound, CT scans, and blood work. On a follow-up visit I was told I had Cirrhosis of the Liver and I had been diagnosed with a Fatty Liver in 1/08. The varices were caused by high portal vein hypertension and I never had high blood pressure before and when I was discarged from the hospital I was taken off the Metrolprolol(for arrythmia) and put on Nadolol. Also Sucralfate and Protonix. Before I had the endoscopy on 12/11 he made a remark that he didn't think I had esophageal varices, which I thought was very odd. Afterwards he told me I had another bleed and he rebanded all the varices from the previous endoscopy. So I did have them. In my follow-up visit of 12/21 he told me that I had to have another endoscopy on 1/8 and scheduled a liver biopsy, finally. After the 1/8 endoscopy he said I had yet another bleed and had to have another one in 4-6 weeks. He did tell me from the blood tests that it looks like I have Autoimmune Hepatitis. Does it usually take this long to have docs to do all of these? It seems that I have a hard time telling him what is my symptoms, like he doesn't want to hear what I say. Should I get another Doctor? There isn't much of a choice where I come from, only two practices of GI docs. HELP

Bless your heart. You are going through so much. I can concur with your frustration. It seems this way w/ urologist for me. Anyway. Sometimes I think drs. just need us to keep things simple. Us women in particular are sometimes too wordy. I've found if I write down a list of symptoms and date it. That way they can keep it in their file for future refrence. They don't get things scrambled up in their memory. Drs. are not infalable. I know I've requested drs. notes and upon reading them realized how much info they perceived wrongly.

I'm praying for you as I know how frustrating autoimmune disorders can be.

Bless your heart. You are going through so much. I can concur with your frustration. It seems this way w/ urologist for me. Anyway. Sometimes I think drs. just need us to keep things simple. Us women in particular are sometimes too wordy. I've found if I write down a list of symptoms and date it. That way they can keep it in their file for future refrence. They don't get things scrambled up in their memory. Drs. are not infalable. I know I've requested drs. notes and upon reading them realized how much info they perceived wrongly.

I'm praying for you as I know how frustrating autoimmune disorders can be.

I had esophageal varices that they found after going to the hospital vomiting blood. I had been going to a GI doc for a couple of years with stomach cramps and diarrhea and I was told he could not find anything wrong with me. Before the bleed, I had been suffering from fatigue and sometimes I found it hard to keep my eyes open, I mentioned this to my regular doc(actually NP) and I would get talked about my sugar levels and my weight, I had been hardly eating and yet my sugar was around 200-230 all the time. Well, I didn't have my regular doc and the doc on call did a surgical endoscopy and found varices in my esophagus. So she banded them and set up a follow up appt with my regular GI doc. I go to him and he could not tell me why I had them. He did say that the only way he would know was to do a liver biopsy, this was on 9/25. He set up another endoscopy for 12/11. I kept getting sick, and I even developed a intestinal bacterial infection from the hospital. Colds and everything. He was sending me for all kinds of xrays, ultrasound, CT scans, and blood work. On a follow-up visit I was told I had Cirrhosis of the Liver and I had been diagnosed with a Fatty Liver in 1/08. The varices were caused by high portal vein hypertension and I never had high blood pressure before and when I was discarged from the hospital I was taken off the Metrolprolol(for arrythmia) and put on Nadolol. Also Sucralfate and Protonix. Before I had the endoscopy on 12/11 he made a remark that he didn't think I had esophageal varices, which I thought was very odd. Afterwards he told me I had another bleed and he rebanded all the varices from the previous endoscopy. So I did have them. In my follow-up visit of 12/21 he told me that I had to have another endoscopy on 1/8 and scheduled a liver biopsy, finally. After the 1/8 endoscopy he said I had yet another bleed and had to have another one in 4-6 weeks. He did tell me from the blood tests that it looks like I have Autoimmune Hepatitis. Does it usually take this long to have docs to do all of these? It seems that I have a hard time telling him what is my symptoms, like he doesn't want to hear what I say. Should I get another Doctor? There isn't much of a choice where I come from, only two practices of GI docs. HELP

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